Oculus Rift is Coming: ‘But For What Games?’ You Might Ask

Oculus Rift is one the most anticipated gaming devices of all time, and how could you argue with that? I can’t think of a single person who wouldn’t be excited to try it.  It’s the first real step into legitimate virtual reality.  Everything prior was just not up to reality standards, but the Oculus though is a different story.  You get a 110 degree field of view rather than the previous 40 degrees and there is almost no latency, where previous devices had a large amount of latency.

In order to use this for any game, the developers have to set it up. So everyone is wondering, what will be compatible with this device?  Because of how insanely amazing this technology is, many developers are jumping on board very quickly.  There are only a few games fully compatible already, but there are quite a few in development:

Fully Compatible

• Team Fortress 2
• Hawken
• The Museum of the Microstar

In progress, get excited:

• 0x10c
• Doom 3
• Doom 4
• Dream
• Fract OSC
• The Gallery: Six Elements
• iRacing
• Kairo
• Miner Wars 2081
• Minecraft
• Montague’s Mount
• Montas
• Quterra
• Phoenix RC
• Positron
• Project CARS
• Rawbots
• Receiver
• rFactor 2
• Rift Rush(Platformer exclusive to Oculus Rift)
• Rogue System
• Routine
• Star Citizen
• Strike Suit Zero
• Sinful Robot
• Wishful Lie
• ZED Absolution

Then there is Vireio Perception.  This is a driver that allows a few more games to be fully or partially compatible.  The games compatible with this are:

• Left 4 Dead 2
• Half-Life 2
• Portal 2
• Skyrim
• Mirror’s Edge
• AaAaAA
• Unreal Tournament 3
• Dear Esther
• and DiRT 2

There is a similar driver program called VorpX which gives yet another list of compatible or partially compatible games:

• BioShock Infinite
• Fallout 3
• Oblivion
• Half-Life 2
• Flight Simulator X
• rFactor
• COD: Black Ops
• Crysis
• and Far Cry

I give it a year or two before every game is developed with compatibility to Oculus Rift, excluding games with game play that just isn’t conceivable with VR; like third person.  However, VorpX has begun making it work with third person–which just makes no sense, but from testaments I’ve seen thus far it works and works better than you’d ever expect.

One last note: There is a process with a crazy name I would never try to spell, but you put electrodes behind your ear that can then stimulate your inner ear, which is where your balance comes from.  So basically they are working on being able to simulate the feeling of being upside down when in reality, you’re not moving.  It’s still in an extremely primitive testing stage and is unreliable, but think about that for a second–not only in a virtual reality in your vision, but being able to feel the G forces that come with flying a jet…  All while sitting on your couch.

The future is upon us!